That's My Son
by Rick Johnson
A Book Review by Troy Parrish

  I picked up this book hoping to find a text written specifically for moms and how they can be of influence in the lives of their sons. Mr. Johnson makes a sincere effort to just that. Writing from a Christian perspective, Mr. Johnson sets out to help moms understand just what makes boys tick and how they can best deal with raising their sons.

Covering topics such as communicating with boys, why boys are the way they are, sexuality, discipline, respect and the like, the book makes a gallent effort to cover each of these topics as well as be a fairly thorough book. There is much that is redeeming about this book as it encourages moms to be actively involved in parenting their sons and to do so with a purpose. With the aid of the tips in the book moms will find that they actually have some idea of the plan that they have for their son.

The book also is redeeming because it strive to help parents make a choice to actively develop the character of their sons. Undeniably our society needs men of character and boys being trained and disciplined. Hence, any book that encourages parents to develop character in their children has some redeeming quality. The Christian component coupled with specific examples and tips will be found useful by many parents.

On the down side, the book presents boys in a way that I found to be somewhat stereotypic. I am confident that Mr. Johnson does so in an attempt to cover as broad a range of boy behavior as possible while not making the book a cumbersome monolith of a book. The difficulty is that boys have a tendency to vary in terms of how they present from boy to boy much more than girls do, so some parents may find that the book does not describe their boy at all. The other difficulty that I saw with the book is that the book is written specifically to moms but it talks a fair amount of the benefits and effects of men on the lives of boys. If you are a mom raising a son without a man being directly invovled in his life, you may find these passages frustrating or discouraging if you are not prepared for them, meaning that you know they are coming. If you can see past that element in the book, it probably is worth a read.

The book is a short 179 pages long and was a relatively easy read, I completed it in three nights. Overall I would recommend the book as you may find it helpful. I would say it is somewhat limited and clearly is not definative.